Gezza

Former President Obama spoke in Johannesburg, South Africa, to honor the late Nelson Mandela — a day after President Trump's news conference beside Russian President Vladimir Putin. Read Obama's full remarks about the "politics of fear and resentment": https://t.co/dKFyDfU71hpic.twitter.com/7AOeF1QLMe

Gezza

Corky

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China has 25,000 licensed travel agencies, but only 2,000 have government authorization to operate in the outbound sector. And no foreign agency operates outbound services for Chinese nationals. Of the five top Chinese tourism operators by revenue, three are state-owned and another is owned partly by Tencent, which has a strong incentive to comply with government mandates.

Perhaps China’s earliest use of tourism flows for statecraft was in Turkey. In 2000, China was trying to bring a derelict Soviet vessel through the Bosporus to use as a basis on which to build its first aircraft carrier. When Turkey blocked the ship’s progress for 16 months, Beijing used the sweetener of inbound tourist flows to Turkey to secure its passage.
Since successfully using tourism as an incentive in 2001, ups and downs in Turkish-Chinese relations have led to drop-offs in tourist flows, which expanded dramatically after the 2013 launch of the Belt and Road Initiative This was on display during 2015 tensions over Chinese treatment of their Turkic Uighur minority, which brought about a massive 53 percent decrease in tourist flows.

Gezza

Conservative lawmakers fear an election, and the possible victory of veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn. Earlier this month, his Labour Party took a lead in the polls.

Labour also says the June 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union must be respected but has attacked the PM over the splits in her party.

In one of the most tumultuous periods in recent British political history, there have been four major votes in the past four years: the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, the 2015 UK election, the Brexit referendum of 2016 and the snap election called by May last year.

May narrowly avoided a defeat in parliament at the hands of the pro-EU lawmakers from her own party in Tuesday’s vote, helped by four opposition Labour lawmakers who went against their party to support the government. Turmoil over Brexit plans has hit the pound.